Behind every financial crisis lurks a "political bubble"--policy biases that foster market behaviors leading to financial instability. Rather than tilting against risky behavior, political bubbles--arising from a potent combination of beliefs, institutions, and interests--aid, abet, and amplify risk. Demonstrating how political bubbles helped creat

"If you thought that the financial crisis was just about finance and the alphabet soup of financial products, think again. With style and eloquence, McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal show it's all about politics--the Faustian bargains that our politicians have made, their ideological biases, and more. This is essential reading for understanding how we got into the current mess and how we are likely to get into many more unless we rethink our politics."--Daron Acemoglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and coauthor of Why Nations Fail

"McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal are the most incisive analysts of America's political economy. In Political Bubbles, their penetrating gaze offers the clearest definitive political economic explanation for the recent financial crisis."--James Robinson, Harvard University and coauthor of Why Nations Fail

"This wise book offers an incisive evaluation of the politics of economic crisis. Persuasively insisting on the need for a new public philosophy, its elegant account at the juncture of political economy and policy analysis artfully connects conceptual argumentation about ideology, interests, and institutions to inventive and illuminating analyses of data."--Ira Katznelson, Columbia University

"This extremely interesting book subtly argues that political bubbles are an important dimension of financial bubbles. Financial bubbles are caused by exuberant expectations and greed, but political bubbles are about how institutions channel ideology and interest into outcomes. The authors make clear how polarization produces gridlock and leads reformers to prefer regulation over legislation--with attendant problems."--James Alt, Harvard University

"This innovative and compelling book demonstrates how financial bubbles and political bubbles go hand in hand, producing periodic meltdowns that deeply affect the lives of ordinary citizens. Synthesizing political science with economics and finance, the book explains not only how the most recent financial crisis relates to previous episodes in American history, but also why responses to the crisis have fallen short of what many had hoped for in terms of fundamental reforms."--Gregory Wawro, Columbia University

"Greatly expanding upon and enriching prior work on political polarization, Political Bubbles persuasively shows that the 2008 financial crisis was the product of potent political forces."---Philip Rocco, Public Administration